City officials press public hearing on charter change

By Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY – The city council wants the Senate Committee on Local Government to conduct a public hearing in the city on Senate Bill No. 3759 or An Act Revising the City Charter of Baguio.

In Resolution No. 89, the body agreed to request the Senate committee to hold the hearing here to feel the pulse of the Baguio people on the current bill refilled before the Congress by Rep. Bernardo Vergara.

Mayor Mauricio Domogan who originally authored the bill during his term as representative said that the public hearing proceedings should be hastened considering the time constraints.

“We hope that they can rush and finish all that was needed to do so we can collate all the amendments and inputs and submit the same to the Senate,” the mayor said.

The mayor was worried that the charter revision matter will again be set aside when the Senate begins hearing the impeachment of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.

“I hope they will still find time to pursue our cause to finally approve the long overdue amendment of the city charter,” he said.

The mayor at the outset felt there is no pressing need to conduct another public hearing in the city considering that the content of the current proposal is exactly the same as the original one he filed twice in Congress.

Domogan said the original bill was subjected to intensive public consultations and hearings with the various sectors in the city and the inputs collated from these consultations were used as basis in crafting and refining the original bill.

The Senate committee chaired by Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier conducted a public hearing on the bill at the Senate building in Pasay City.

The committee collated the inputs gathered during the hearing for incorporation in the final draft.

The present bill is the city’s third crack at amending its age-old charter after two attempts during the term of Domogan proved unsuccessful.

Vergara revived the bill and refiled the same with the Lower House adopting the exact contents of the original proposal.

The bill was approved in the Lower House and is now being tackled by the Senate.

The city’s charter has remained unchanged since it was written by Justice George Malcolm in 1909.

The Charter even pre-dates the 1935 Constitution and has not yet been revised since its enactment so that almost all of its provisions have become obsolete and irrelevant.

Domogan earlier described his bill as a “mixed marriage of provision of Republic Act No. 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991 and the provisions of the 1909 City Charter, as amended by the Revised Administrative Code of 1917 and of Presidential Proclamations.”

He said the bill “is expected to settle once and for all the jurisdictional boundary conflict between the City of Baguio and the town of Tuba in Benguet.”

Among the proposals under the bill are the following:

*The alienable and disposable public lands in the city known as the Baguio Townsite Reservation be titled in its name so that it can exert its power and authority to implement its approved land use and development plan.

*The issue of ownership over said townsite reservation be speedily settled in favor of qualified occupants/applicants which will likewise address the problems of squatting. This is so because after the said townsite reservation is titled in the name of the city and after segregating those portions for public needs, the remaining areas which are safe for residential lots using the model of QM and South Sanitary Camp subdivisions be transferred for reasonable consideration to the actual occupants and/or qualified applicants;

*The revenues of the city be tremendously increased. This is so because from the moment the issue of ownership over said townsite reservation had been settled in favor of the actual occupants and/or qualified applicants, they can now pay to the city government the reasonable consideration of the said land pursuant to Art. 1 Sect. 4b and Art. 15 Sect. 85, apply for the necessary building permits which will require them to pay the said building permit fees, and more importantly, they will now pay real estate taxes.”

The bill, according to the mayor also seeks “to institutionalize the payment of the national government of its contribution to the administrative expenses of the city of Baguio pursuant to the provision of Republic Act No. 4708.”

Furthermore, the proposed revision “treats on the improvement of the restructuring and reorganization of the offices of the city government with the creation of valid positions relevant to the present and future needs of the city.”